Hong Kong’s Baptist University, like CityU, can ‘afford’ 3 to 5% spending cut

Baptist University has said it can handle a 3 to 5 per cent cut in public funding over the next three years in the face of the Hong Kong government’s fiscal deficit, a day after another institution, City University, indicated the same.

Alexander Wai Ping-kong, Baptist University president, on Friday also expressed confidence that the institution could win the bid for the city’s third medical school with an expert advisory committee that “would not be exposed to geopolitical risks”.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po said there would be room to save money in the education sector as the city expected a nearly HK$100 billion (US$12.8 billion) deficit this financial year, while education minister Christine Choi Yuk-lin also made it clear that authorities would push through a reduction of university funding.

“[Government funding cuts of] 3 to 5 per cent over the next three years, I think the university could afford it by tightening our belts,” Wai said at a spring reception.

“But any cuts that exceed that range would definitely impact [the operation of] the university,” he added, while noting it was the consensus of all eight public universities to ride out difficult times with the government.

A day before, CityU president Freddy Boey also said his institution could tolerate a 3 to 5 per cent cut while warning against drastic changes beyond that range.

When asked what the university would do to tackle the budget cuts, Wai said enrolling more non-local students or increasing their tuition fees were options, but not his “preferred ones” as education quality should be guaranteed.